Fashioning The Past: Thomas Gainsborough - The Honourable Mrs. Graham Thomas Gainsborough - The Honourable Mrs. Graham Thomas Gainsborough - The Honourable Mrs. Graham 1775-1777 National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh There is an almost instantaneous visual association upon hearing the name Thomas Gainsborough with this painting. It is one of his most recognisable works, and for good reason. Not only does it capture Gainsborough's play on lightness against rich textures but also gives an insight into his inspirations as an artist. The sitter Mary Graham is also of interest, due to her engrossing and heartbreaking story. Thomas Gainsborough was a British landscape and portrait painter in the 18th Century. He was born in Sudbury in 1727, to a father who manufactured and sold clothes, and a mother who had an interest in painting flowers. Gainsborough travelled to London to work at a Silversmiths, then with Hubert Gravelot, a pictorial engraver and the painter Francis Hayman.

He began his work with paintings of landscapes which he preferred, but he started to study the skills of portraiture as the commissions were more lucrative. Some of his earlier pieces such as Mr. and Mrs. Andrews c. 1748 combined landscape and portraiture, and gave him the opportunity to paint his beloved Suffolk. His fame gradually grew when he moved to Bath and he painted his most well-known work The Blue Boy, 1770. Despite Gainsborough declaring that he was 'sick of portraits', he produced more than 700 of them. His portraits of 18th Century British society are renowned for the close likeness of his sitters that he managed to achieve. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews c.1748 The Honourable Mary Cathcart was raised in Russia, her father was the 9th Baron Cathcart who was Ambassador to Catherine The Great. Upon her return to England she married the wealthy Scottish landowner Thomas Graham. Mrs Graham posed for this portrait a year after her wedding. Her beauty and gentle demeanour caught the attention of Gainsborough, who decided to paint her.

Mrs Graham had tuberculosis and after 18 years of marriage she died whilst the couple were travelling in the South of France. Further tragedy struck when her casket was broken into by French soldiers, and her body was exposed and tampered with. After this, her husband wasn't able to look at the painting and gave it to Mary Graham's sister. Thomas Gainsborough - The Honourable Mrs. Graham 1775-1777 The beautiful and poignant painting highlights Gainsborough's light brushwork, which creates a graceful movement to the costume. The juxtaposition of the lightness of the painting with the rich folds and textures of the fabric is also eye-catching. Some of the costumes in Thomas Gainsborough's portraits were sometimes imagined, but quite often real. Regardless of this, he used fashion as a means of expressing the sitter's place in society. In the case of this painting, Mrs Graham's opulent clothes express her wealth and her high social standing. Her slenderness and height are also indicative of nobility and elegance. The richness and excess of her clothing doesn't create a stiffness often seen in 18th Century portraiture.

Her soft expression and the ease of which Gainsborough painted her give an impression of elegance as opposed to ostentatious pomp. Historical fashion was often included in Gainsborough's work, showing not only the fashionability of his sitters but he used this as a tool to convey their wealth also. This can be seen in this portrait with 17th Century details including the plumed hat, high heeled shoes, pearl detailing, relaxed collar and ribbon on the sleeves. The silver and pink tones also show a move away from the previous darkness in colour of the past fashions. The ostrich feather that Mrs Graham is holding is often seen in paintings in the Van Dyck style. Anthony Van Dyck was one of the most influential portraitists, with his elegant style being held as shaping the style of European portraiture into the 18th Century. Gainsborough studied the work of Van Dyck and this influence can be seen in the painting, as well as some of his other full-length portraits. The Blue Boy is another clear exemplification of Gainsborough's adaptions of Van Dyck's style. The boy is depicted in a costume that would have been worn around 140 years before the painting.

However, as I mentioned before this was often done to interpret excess. This excess is seen in The Honourable Mrs. Graham, but with a simplicity so as not to lessen the grace with which Mrs Graham carries her affluence. As Gainsborough's style changed his favourability with the fashionable elite grew, as they all wanted to be seen as majestic in their portraits. The Blue Boy, 1770 Thomas Gainsborough is one of my favourite portraitists, partly for his realism but mainly for his genius in illustrating the textural compositions of fabric. His expert brushwork gives clothes a looseness, that is true to how they would fall on the body. Gainsborough understood the identity defining nature of fashion and used this as a means to reveal more about his subjects. Photos: Gainsborough, Thomas The Honourable Mrs Graham painting - The Honourable Mrs Graham print for sale We sell thousands of pieces of artwork each month - all with a 100% money-back guaranteed. If you want to purchase museum quality The Honourable Mrs Graham at discount price, why not give us a try? You will save a lot more!

Delivery If Gainsborough, Thomas The Honourable Mrs Graham is printed by machine on textured canvas, it takes about 5 working days to your address; if you choose it as hand painted reproduction, it takes about 18 working days to your address. We ship all over the world. This Gainsborough, Thomas The Honourable Mrs Graham is oil on canvas and waterproof. We can provide The Honourable Mrs Graham giclee print, stretched canvas and large framed art, but do not offer poster.

The Honourable Mrs Thomas Graham (after Thomas Gainsborough) | Maclise, Daniel RA | V&A Search the Collections The Honourable Mrs Thomas Graham (after Thomas Gainsborough) Maclise, Daniel RA, born 1806 - died 1870 The Honourable Mrs Thomas Graham (after Thomas Gainsborough) Object: early 19th century to mid 19th century (painted) Artist/Maker: Maclise, Daniel RA, born 1806 - died 1870 (painter (artist)) Materials and Techniques: Bequeathed by Mrs John Forster Museum number: Download PDF version Physical description An oil copy of Thomas Gainsborough's full-length portrait of the Honourable Mrs Thomas Graham, wearing a silver and rose gown and leaning against a pillar.

Place of Origin early 19th century to mid 19th century (painted) Artist/maker Maclise, Daniel RA, born 1806 - died 1870 (painter (artist)) Materials and Techniques Height: 32.4 cm estimate, Width: 22.3 cm estimate Object history note Bequeathed by Mrs John Forster, 1894 Descriptive line Oil Painting, 'The Honourable Mrs Thomas Graham (after Thomas Gainsborough)', Daniel Maclise, early 19th century-mid 19th century Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no) Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 184 Production Note A copy of Thomas Gainsborough's picture (now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh).

Materials Print this record Large image request Please confirm you are using these images within the following terms and conditions , by acknowledging each of the following key points: Non commercial use only Maximum 4000 copies, or 5 years digital use No book jacket, or homepage lead image use Maximum A5 print / 768px digital use Images must be credited © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Please let us know how you intend to use the images you will be downloading. The Honourable Mrs. Graham, Oil Painting after Thomas Gainsborough - Oil Paintings - - Colchester Fine Art The Honourable Mrs. Graham, Oil Painting after Thomas Gainsborough The Honourable Mrs. Graham A wonderful oil on canvas set on board portrait painting of The Honourable Mrs. Graham, set in a very nice ornate gilt frame. unsigned but looks professionaly painted and was painted during the 2oth century. Size of frame is 725ml. wide x 975ml.. high and both the picture and the frame are in good condition.

The original Thomas Gainsborough painting is a full length portrait and is on display in the Scottish National Gallery and is thought to be one fo Gainsborough’s finest full length portraits painted in the tradition of Van Dyck. The costume and accessories are true 17th century fashion and enhances the elegant beauty of the Honourable Mrs. Graham (1757-1792). She was Born the Honourable Mary Cathcart, daughter of the 9th Baron Cathcart, he was Ambassador to Catherine the Great. She married the wealthy Perthshire Landowner Thomas Graham who later became Lord Lynedoch in 1774. The original portrait won high acclaim when it was exhibited at The Royal Acadamy in 1777. See Payment Options. (click on photo for larger image). (F)260610 Price: The Honourable Mrs Graham - Madame Guillotine Madame Guillotine Kill them all if they won't eat cake Kill them all if they won't eat cake Home » art » The Honourable Mrs Graham Social links Want to read more? Don't forget to subscribe!

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Mary Cathcart, Mrs Graham (1757-1792) was the sitter for what is possibly the most famous of Thomas Gainsborough’s paintings, the one that usually leaps to mind when people are asking to think of a ‘Gainsborough lady’ and yet I think I prefer this less well known and more subtle portrait from 1775. It’s obvious really that Gainsborough had a bit of a thing for his sitter as he clearly really adored painting her. Mrs Graham was a renowned beauty, who had additional bonus exotic points for having been raised in Russia where her father, Baron Cathcart was Ambassador to the court of Catherine the Great. Her arrival back in England must have been akin to the return from Paris of Anne Boleyn two centuries earlier and it is no surprise that her husband was passionately in love with her. It is said that he once rode ninety miles in pouring rain to their country seat to fetch her a necklace that she wanted to wear to a ball in Edinburgh that night. No mean feat.

Sadly for her husband and dozens of ardent admirers, poor Mary was stricken with tuberculosis and began to waste away, becoming extremely frail and weak in the process although her beauty was apparently very little diminished. It was during a restorative holiday in Brighton that she was to be introduced to today’s other great beauty, Georgiana of Devonshire and the two became the best of friends, in fact some might say that they were more than friends. It’s hard to say for certain what happened between Mary and Georgiana as most of their friendship was necessarily conducted by letter and the languishing, affectionate language used between women of the time may well seem laden with significance and innuendo to twentieth first century eyes but was just conventional in the eighteenth century and nothing out of the ordinary in a culture where sensibility and sincere friendship, amité were much admired and considered to be the ideal. Desperate to improve his wife’s failing health, her husband took her to Nice in Spring 1792, where it was hoped that the more salubrious climate would help her recover or at least be more comfortable.

Sadly she was to die on the 26th June and he would be faced with the difficulties of transporting her corpse back through a France that was ravaged by revolution and insurrection. Horribly, her coffin was opened in Toulouse by a group of French soldiers and mistreated, which must have added terribly to her widower’s grief. The beautiful Mrs Graham was buried in a mausoleum in Methven and, unable to deal with his grief, her husband first covered her portrait with a length of white cloth then decided to give it to her sister as he just couldn’t bear to look upon her face. The painting was later given to the National Gallery of Scotland, on condition that it was never allowed to leave the country. In contrast to her other portrait by Gainsborough, which now resides in Washington. Mr Graham would initially try to cope with the loss of his adorable wife with a lot of foreign travel but the incident at Toulouse appears to have preyed on his mind, leading him to a great loathing and hatred of the French in general and French soldiers in particular which in turn seems to have influenced his decision to join the army and take part in the war against them.

This could have ended badly but on the contrary he became well known for his gallantry and heroism. Share? The Honourable Mrs Graham by Thomas Gainsborough « Intermezzo promotions Sarcophagus of Pabasa 656-640BC #museumfact » The Honourable Mrs Graham by Thomas Gainsborough Mary Cathcart (1757-1792) was born to the 9th Earl of Cathcart who was ambassador to Catherine the Great in Russia. Brought up in Russia she returned to England when she was 17 and married Thomas Graham, a Scottish aristocrat. Very much in love with Mary there is a story that when she forgot her jewellery on the way to a ball, Thomas made a 90 mile round trip on horseback to fetch it for her. She was considered a beauty of her day and was befriended by Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire, while on holiday in Brighton. She died young, at the age of 35, from tuberculosis and her husband was so grief-stricken that he had her portrait covered with a cloth and then gave it to her sister, as he could no longer bear to look at it.

Mary is buried in the churchyard at Methven in Perthshire. This painting is considered to be one of Thomas Gainsborough’s finest full-length portraits and it was bequeathed to the National Galleries in Edinburgh on the understanding that it never leaves Scotland. Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. The son of a weaver, his artistic skills were recognised early and he left to study art in London at the age of 13. His skills as a portrait artist moved him from Sudbury to Ipswich and then to Bath where his sitters were now authors, actors and members of high society. In 1768 he was elected a founder member of the Royal Academy of Arts and moved to Pall Mall in London. He was a favourite of King George III and his wife Charlotte and was commissioned to paint their portrait. He had an uneasy relationship with the Royal Academy and eventually withdrew from them, preferring to hang his paintings in his own studio. Although he preferred to paint landscapes it is for his portraits that he is remembered including Mr and Mrs Andrews, Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire and of course the Honourable Mrs Graham. You will find this portrait in Room X in the National Gallery of Edinburgh.

Intermezzo offer assistance with income generation and sponsorship to Museums, Art Galleries and Heritage Properties and provide unique access and private viewings in venues across Scotland. For more information contact us at info@intermezzo-arts.co.uk or on 0141 636 6929 Tags: Art , Art Tours , Edinburgh , Gainsborough , Intermezzo , Mary Graham , National Gallery , National Gallery Scotland , Portrait , The Honourable Mrs Graham , Thomas Gainsborough , Tours This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 7:30 pm and is filed under National Gallery Edinburgh . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century: Tart of the Week: The Honourable Mary Graham Friday, September 5, 2008 Tart of the Week: The Honourable Mary Graham I might actually be doing an injustice to the Beautiful Mrs Graham by honoring her with being the tart of the week because she was a really sweet little thing.

But she is interesting and an extraordinary woman of the times so she is worth writing about. Plus, she did have an affair...with a woman (you may never guess who!) so that makes her tart enough for me! Mary Cathcart was born to the 9th Earl of Cathcart who just happened to be the ambassador to Catherine the Great in Russia. This meant Mary enjoyed her upbringing with her brothers and sisters in the fashionable country. When she returned to England she was immediately married off to Thomas Graham at the age of 17. Thomas was not a peer but he was distinguished and owned a lot of land. He wasn't the brightest man but he dearly loved Mary. There is a story that when she forgot her jewelery box for a ball Thomas immediately jumped on his horse and raced 90 miles and back to fetch it for her. Indeed, she was beautiful and gentle and many found it hard not to like her which may have earned her the nickname The Beautiful Mrs. Graham. One of the people to fall under her charms was Thomas Gainsborough. He found her beauty to be exotic and could not help to paint her as much as possible, even if she wasn't there. It is very likely he was head over heels for her.

Unfortunately the much-loved Mrs. Graham was very sick. She had tuberculosis which caused her to be very frail. She withered away to a modern dress-size 8 (around size 6, US) which in 18th century terms was emaciated. It also caused her to have sunken eyes and a large upper lip. Indeed, Georgians did not find this attractive at all but she won them over with kind disposition. The disease was crippling for Mary, and while her famous Gainsborough portrait was painted she could only sit for small periods at a time. In fact, she was not even wearing the glamorous masquerade gown, that is all a figment of Gainsborough's imagination and a testament to his skills with the brush. Mary may have never even seen the painting but when her family did they found it to be obscene. Despite this, it was displayed at the Royal Academy in 1777 to great acclaim. Meanwhile, Mary and Thomas were in Brighton, hoping the sea-air would cure her pneumonia. It was here that the couple ran into another famous couple. It was none other than the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The two ladies immediately latched on to each other.

They were the same age and had married in the same year too. They quickly became best friends and unlike Georgiana's future best-friendship with Bess, this one was more healthy. Mary was naturally motherly and led a much more subdued life than Georgiana. This balanced Georgiana out a bit and slowed her down. Unfortunately, the two friends had to part Brighton and were forced to reduce their relationship to daily correspondence. It is here that a change can be noticed between the two friends. In fact, Mary and Georgiana became more than friends. Georgiana found in Mary, someone who really loved her, a feeling foreign to her in her marriage. Georgiana was "the love of her life" according to Mary's biographer, Sarah Symmons . When Mary's health did not improved, she was forced further from her beloved in search of warmer climates. The two women were devastated but Georgiana soon got swept up in her party lifestyle. The were not to meet again until 1792 in Nice while Mary was in the final stage of consumption. She died shortly afterward. In her dying breaths she spoke of her love and friendship with Georgiana. But her sad story does not end there.

Since she died on a boat in French waters Thomas hired a barge to take her body to a plot in Bordeaux to be buried. On it's way there her casket was desecrated by french soldiers and her remains molested. Thomas closed the casket and then brought it to the Scottish Highlands where it rests in a mausoleum today. Upon Mary's death, her famous Gainsborough portrait was covered with white muslin for Thomas could not bare to look at it. He was deeply grieved by his wife's passing. He reacted to her death by joining the army (can we say mid-life crisis?) and became the oldest general in the British army. The years passed and the portrait remained hidden until it was rediscovered in 1857. It was then bequeathed to the National Gallery of Scotland on the condition that it would never leave the museum's walls and there it stays today. For Mary's health took her away from her countrymen and those who loved her but her portrait is not allowed to do so.

The Honourable Mrs Graham (1757 - 1792) (1775 - 1777) | National Galleries Scotland The Honourable Mrs Graham (1757 - 1792) (1775 - 1777) Download a larger version of this image About this artwork This is one of Gainsborough's finest full-length portraits in the tradition of Van Dyck. The costume and accessories deliberately echo seventeenth century fashion and enhance the elegant beauty of the Honourable Mrs Graham (1757-1792). She was born the Honourable Mary Cathcart, daughter of 9th Baron Cathcart, who was Ambassador to Catherine the Great. She married the Perthshire landowner Thomas Graham in 1774, and they bought Lynedoch House near Methven, Perthshire in 1787. The portrait was highly acclaimed when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1777. Thomas Graham, devastated by his wife's premature death in 1792, passed the painting to her sister. It was bequeathed to the National Gallery by one of their descendants on condition that it never leaves Scotland.

title: The Honourable Mrs Graham (1757 - 1792) accession number: NG 332 measurements: 237.00 x 154.00 cm (framed: 265.00 x 182.50 x 11.00 cm) credit line: Bequest of Robert Graham of Redgorton 1859 photographer: Antonia Reeve Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough Gainsborough excelled as a portrait and landscape painter. He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, and trained in London. He became a highly successful artist, first in Ipswich, then in Bath. He concentrated on portraiture to make a living and continued to build on the grand manner of Van Dyck, but also introduced a refreshing informality through his imaginative landscape backgrounds and his fluid, lively brushwork. Gainsborough was a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768 and returned to London in 1774. He was artistically and temperamentally quite different from his rival Reynolds, but the two artists developed a sincere mutual respect.

related art View more Related collections More about this artwork A sad yet romantic story lies behind this work which, thanks to a generous and visionary bequest, was among the very first works to enter the Gallery’s collection. The sitter was born Mary Cathcart, the daughter of the 9th Lord Cathcart, a soldier and diplomat who, in 1768, was appointed Ambassador to Catherine the Great in St Petersburg. His second daughter Mary became a prominent figure in the fashionable society of Georgian London. By all accounts she was a young woman of keen intelligence and great charm. She attracted admirers as diverse as Robert Burns and Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire who recalled ‘her goodness, her sense, her sweetness’. But it was Mary’s beautiful looks that captured the imagination of her peers. When Gainsborough exhibited this portrait at the Royal Academy in 1777 it attracted much attention and secured his sitter’s reputation as an icon of contemporary beauty. Mary Graham was painted by Gainsborough when she was eighteen years old, a few months after her marriage to a young Scottish laird, Thomas Graham, later Lord Lynedoch.

The couple might have expected to settle permanently on Graham’s Perthshire estates but, afflicted by tuberculosis, Mary’s health was soon in decline. They sought warmer climates in Portugal and France to ease her illness but she died, aged just thirty-five, in 1792. Her widowed husband then launched himself into a military career, becoming a celebrated commander under Wellington in the Peninsular War. (A portrait of Thomas Graham in his military uniform by Sir Thomas Lawrence hangs in Apsley House in London.) He never remarried and, according to tradition, he could not bear to contemplate the Gainsborough portrait of his young wife which was kept out of sight in storage. He survived his wife by some fifty years, and after his death in 1843 his estate was inherited by a second cousin, Robert Graham of Redgorton. The Gainsborough portrait was retrieved from a repository in London and bequeathed to the new National Gallery in Scotland with the binding condition ‘that it shall never leave Edinburgh’. The portrait of Mrs Graham has long been recognised as one of Gainsborough’s greatest works.

Unlike his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough did not travel to Italy and he did not feel the need to emulate the weight and resonance of classical and Renaissance art, finding instead sufficient inspiration in the flamboyant portraits of the Flemish painter Van Dyck. The delicacy and spontaneity of Gainsborough’s technique seems perfectly suited to evoking the fragile beauty of Mary Graham. She is presented in an imagined landscape setting, leaning against a column and wearing a shimmering Van Dyck-style dress and a magnificent feathered hat. The society beauty is distant, aloof yet somehow vulnerable and exposed. For all the trappings of eighteenth-century elegance and fashion, the poetic mood of this portrait has a timeless appeal. It has now become one of the images most closely associated with the Scottish National Gallery. This text was originally published in 100 Masterpieces: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2015. The Not So Honorable Mrs. Graham | Rice | Williams Prize The Not So Honorable Mrs. Thomas Graham Rice L-SAW 2010 Thomas Gainsborough, a portrait and landscape painter during the eighteenth century, was renowned both during his life and posthumously for his work.

After an already productive career as a painter, Gainsborough moved from Bath to London, where he painted many full-length images of women in a Van Dyck, baroque style ( Gainsborough Paintings 1). Displaying these portraits after a multi-year break from exhibitions, Gainsborough's "most outstanding exhibit at the Royal Academy of 1777 was the portrait of The Hon. Mrs. Thomas Graham " (Cormack 122). The portrait depicts the striking nineteen-year-old in a flowing red and off-white gown shortly after her marriage to a very worthy bachelor ( Gainsborough Painting 218). She is leaning against a grand column, adorned with jewelry while holding a feather in one hand and her dress in the other, illuminated and pale between her home and a dark landscape. Many critics feel that Gainsborough depicts Mrs. Graham in a flattering fashion, elegantly exploiting her upper-class status, yet the dramatization of her material possessions and placement choices in the painting demonstrate that these culturally desirable traits of the upper echelons of eighteenth century society were truly binding and far from honorable.

The image manifests that women were stuck in the home, unable to break free from the confining role of domesticity and grace that was culturally crafted for them to fulfill. Thomas Gainsborough's portrait The Honorable Mrs. Thomas Graham inadvertently displays women's stagnancy in eighteenth century society. Stripped of agency, Mrs. Graham, contrary to popular belief, actually displays societal imprisonment rather than allure when viewed through a modern lens. "Gainsborough eschewed allegory," which means that his choices in the painting are straightforward and purposeful in how he wishes to portray Mrs. Graham, being that she is an aristocratic, respectable lady (Rosenthal 47). Illustrating and advertising wealth are essential to Mr. and Mrs. Graham, so Gainsborough depicts affluence. His choices in the portrait align with what a noble wife and husband admired in a woman: tradition and material worth, whichis far from progressive. The painting's title dictates that Mrs. Graham is "honorable," which explores what it means to be an honorable woman in the eighteenth century. Since Gainsborough is a portrait painter who wishes to please his subject, he draws Mrs. Graham in a fashion that will appear respectable and admirable.

Therefore, beautiful gowns, elaborate jewelry, high heels, and an elongated body formulate the definition of honor for Mrs. Graham, her husband, Gainsborough, and most likely the general public of the era. She is referred to as Mrs. Thomas Graham in the title too, which instantly aligns her with her husband. Her identity is dependent upon his name and reputation, so her honor reflects him. Additionally, Mrs. Graham is placed within her home, expressing that her domesticity is superior. Her extravagant house, represented by the column, is essential to her respectability. Excess is the key to honor. Less is definitely not more in Mrs. Graham's case. Mrs. Graham's instantly striking extravagance in clothes and jewelry intends to express her status and respectability, yet underlying this excessiveness is the need for a woman to look conventional and elegant in order to be considered beautiful and honorable, as the painting's title suggests.

Gainsborough's portraits are expressions of how the subject wishes to see herself, as a perfect eighteenth century beauty: "he [Gainsborough] always preferred to paint his sitters in contemporary dress; his fancy dress portraits, notably in 'Vandyck' costume, generally reflected the tastes of sitters rather than his own" ( Drawings 35). Hired and paid by a client, a portraitist's job is to please his client, who in this case is Thomas Gainsborough, and make the subject look beautiful, "combin[ing] her beauties, or correct[ing] her defects" ( Drawings 47). Therefore, it is not even the real Mrs. Graham being portrayed, but a fabrication of the young lady with perfect physical traits. To be valued in the culture of that time period, a woman must wear the finest jewelry, with flowing dresses, a big hat, and lots of flair. The painting reminds the viewer that the most expensive, flashy clothes are best, especially in upper-class life. Status and femininity seem to have been most important to Mr. and Mrs. Graham, especially Mr. Graham who financed the excess.

If his wife had expensive possessions, she would be a physical representation of his success and money. The gaudiness of the painting hints that he wished for his wife to be viewed as what the twenty-first century calls a "trophy wife." As a high-society woman, status is everything � the more one owns and wears, the more respected she is. This excess overtakes the woman and the painting, distracting from any inner character she might have. This materialism seems acceptable at first glance, yet it detracts from Mrs. Graham's inner beauty. Distracted by her exterior, viewers instantly judge her on her physical appearance. Her accessories are too much, like the feather in her hat, the ruffles, and the heeled shoes, making the young woman appear overdone: "there is a heightened romantic feeling, a deliberate search for 'glamour', which, in the Mrs. Graham , once the first feeling of astonishment at its fabulous dexterity has worn off, seems to fall into excess. These portraits are in a style of remarkable formal elegance which almost overshadows the painter's concern for likeness" (Waterhouse 26). In this portrait, the viewer does not see the true Mrs.

Graham; rather, one sees perfection and "excess," exploiting the need of an upper-class woman to have the finest adornments. The painting is not concerned with anything but Mrs. Graham's position in society, aligning with the preferences of the client as well as the reputation-based cultural values. The overindulgence of display conveys that her status is her most significant, if not only, attribute to communicate. This lavishness demonstrates a woman's need to always look her best, and both Mr. and Mrs. Graham promoted and internalized this attitude. This painting is dramatic "both in the extravagant masquerade costume, and in the grandiose pose[,] [with] [h]er left hand [and] elegantly displayed fingers [�] grasp[ing] the fluttering drapery, while her right arm falls gracefully to hold the feather" (Cormack 122). This description illuminates that Mrs. Graham's femininity is what makes her beautiful, especially when it is expressed through her clothing and her pose. She stands tall, yet looks as if she is molded to fit into a certain form because of her stern stance.

She does not seem comfortable, especially because of her harsh look away from the painter. Because Gainsborough draws her in a flattering fashion, she fits into the constructed role of the upper-class wife. She is playing the part of a superior woman, and this femininity is of the utmost importance to her: "The delicacy of the softly modelled head, the lovely Van Dyck dress, the richly impasted brushwork in the highlights of the overskirt and the impressionistic handling in the robe beneath, a welter of pinks and lakes and crimsons [are all] [�] of praise to feminine grace and beauty" ( Gainsborough Paintings 218-9). Her puffy and boisterous clothes make her "graceful" and "beautiful," not herself. The clothes are striking and elegant, yet prove that women needed to fit a traditional mold and wear certain clothes to be considered honorable. This mindset was engrained in both the minds of women and men in the era because they both wished to see women portrayed in this fashion of stunning glamour and great expense. The clothes are excessive and distract from the actual subject because it seems as if her money and status are more important than her actual character.

This gaudiness creates stagnancy because if Mrs. Graham cares most about her physical appearance and least about her intellectual and moral advancement, then she can be an honorable wife and woman. If she looks good, nothing else matters. Since Mrs. Graham has fine clothes, she does not seem to need anything else and, therefore, her social identity is her only concern. With status and money, Mrs. Graham is satisfied with her role as a wealthy wife, for she did agree to pose for the portrait. Situated next to a classical-style, large column covered with vines, Mrs. Graham is paralleled to the structure. They are both beautiful, but regressive. Critics acknowledge the relationship between the young lady and the column: "The regal pose and slight but majestic turn of the head are matched by the mighty plinth and columns (though who but Gainsborough would have straggled a branch and leaves across them), and these dominate the canvas in a way characteristic of the baroque" ( Gainsborough Paintings 218). Mrs. Graham and the column both have a presence in the painting that seems overdone. Just as the column is large and covered with vines, Mrs.

Graham is tall and stoic, adorned with the finest jewelry and fabrics. Both of them convey the theme of excess once again. The column elucidates the retrogression and stagnancy of women too, because this is a classical style of architecture. They are neither progressive nor new-world and this is especially true in the painting, for it is as if prehistoric vines have twisted their way around the pillar, exploiting its antiquity. It is true that "[t]he baroque column is enormous, with leaves tumbling over it," just like Mrs. Graham is elegant, but both portray a sense of being stuck because they are representations of tradition (Cormack 122). That column is not going anywhere � and neither is Mrs. Graham. The parallel between the two, standing tall and adjacent, proves not only that both are beautiful and elaborate, but that both are filling a role and a purpose, one that is not much more than physical appearance. Just as the column holds up Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Graham must keep up her status in support of herself and her husband. As an object of tradition, the column shows that Mrs.

Graham will not change or grow, but she will stay in this role eternally, most concerned with conveying grandeur. The feather in Mrs. Graham's right hand, which points down and droops to portray the weight of all this materialism, also emphasizes outer appearance. The feather was viewed by many critics and peers of Mrs. Graham as an added piece of elegance, yet its positioning is obscure. Such downward motion seems depressing and detracts from her stoic, tall stance. For a painter, "[i]nventiveness in portraiture was a useful tactic for getting noticed" (Rosenthal 46). Therefore, like the column, this feather was a way of adding something special and noticeable to Mrs. Graham. The viewer must wonder why, then, it falls so lazily. It seems as if, like the feather, Mrs. Graham is weak and airy. She could not even stand to hold up such a light object. A man would be holding something heavy or have his arms in a position to portray his strength, but Mrs. Graham is given a feather and she cannot even lift it because she is too "delicate." The feather symbolizes Mrs.

Graham because it represents femininity and fragility, exemplifying her husband's dominance. Furthermore, it is important to realize what is absent from the portrait. There are no books or animals. There is no trace of the sun. There is no hint towards any other interest besides materialism and appearance, for all that is present in the painting is finery and jewels. Mrs. Graham's character in the portrait is her status and her appearance. There is nothing about her personality to be garnered from this painting besides her upper-class position, which seems to consume her whole being. The choice of a feather in the painting shows that her femininity is all she has. Mrs. Graham appears to be a figure of admiration, and this admiration stems solely from her wealth and her husband. Mrs. Graham's paleness, additionally, juxtaposes with the dark background, making the women appear to be an enlightened, pure figure, yet in contrast to the dark she is simply a na�ve creature that needs protection.

Gainsborough's art exemplifies "his search for a grander figure style that would convey more powerful feelings," so this contrast between the light and the dark is a way to portray the young woman as pure and heavenly ( Drawings 52). Since a portrait painter's job is to please the subject, the contrast to him most likely served to make her appear celestial, glowing from the canvas. Yet, the juxtaposition of light and dark is a subconscious way of separating good from evil. Mrs. Graham's paleness would have been the essence of her beauty and portrayed her virtuousness. She is delicate and calm in the wild world, represented by the dark trees in the background next to her bright calm in the home. Yet, the darkness or the evil lurking directly behind her symbolizes the malevolence of the real world, the world of men and their lives outside the home. She is not engrossed in it though, for she is protected by here purity, symbolically displayed with her glowing. Moreover, the glowing makes her look like an angel, which also represents goodness and virtue.

It is as if she is sheltered and will never experience this dark world because she cannot battle it, hence why she stands on the ground of her porch and not in the dark landscape. This imagery indirectly shows that although Mrs. Graham appears to be an enlightened figure, darkness surrounds her. She only appears to be enlightened, yet there is all this knowledge from which she is protected. Mrs. Graham is a portrayal of purity through her glow and color, yet the underlying truth is that she is weak and needs asylum from the real world, illustrated once again by her placement within the boundaries of the home, separated from the yard. Her purity is of paramount significance, for if the boundaries between light and dark fade, she is no longer honorable. Being light and pure amidst the darkness is her only option; there is no room for her to move because she clearly cannot go into the yard that would consume her. Mrs. Graham is forced and stuck into this position of innocence, yet she herself does not even mind it because she clearly chases her domesticity and status as a wife over everything else, as was previously discussed. The subject has learned and internalized purity and femininity. Mrs.

Graham's pose, furthermore, is tall and strong, yet the choice to put her looking to the left with such grim expression shows retrogression, or at the very least, confinement. This portrait was painted later in Gainsborough's life, after he moved to London, and it is said that "after experiencing the sophistication of city life, his [Gainsborough's] work changed and he painted in a style which, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was regarded as the acme of elegance" (Belsey 7). Status here, when he was immersed into cosmopolitan life, was of immense importance and that is why Mrs. Graham, as a lady of metropolitan distinction, stands tall. Mrs. Graham's stance and expression are considered by many critics to be "elegant," yet her eyes look depressed. She is looking backwards and towards the ground. Her dress might convey power and her heels might be fancy, but her expression is questionable. She is stoic, like a statue. Her lips are not in a frown, yet not in a smile. Her eyes seem frozen, with no emotion. Facial expressions make a subject human and lively, yet Mrs. Graham has none.

She is stripped of emotion, for this is not what seems to have mattered. She was only needed to appear valuable, and emotions play no role in that. She needs neither a voice nor agency because her opinions were trivial in comparison to her caliber. A smile or turn towards the painter was clearly insignificant because it would distract from the material items on her. Retrogression also underlies Mrs. Graham's body language because she looks to the left, which is backwards rather than forwards. Instead of seeing progress and hope for the future, she sees, resignedly, her place. She is stuck in these beautiful clothes, fulfilling the traditional model of a domestic wife. That is all she needs to be; that is all she wants to be; that is all anyone else wants her to be. She cannot advance, and her future is set, just as the column. Basically, her present will be the same as her future, for she will still wear beautiful dresses and entertain in the home. Therefore, Mrs. Graham faces towards the left, for there is no need to worry about moving forward. Finally, placing Mrs. Graham on the boundary between her home and the land is allegorical because it shows that although the world is right at her feet, Mrs.

Graham belongs in the home. Gainsborough painted many portraits, and many were of men with guns. All of Gainsborough's portraits with guns show how he was purposeful in his placement of objects, for he wanted to avoid phallic imagery in some and make comments upon libido in others. He purposefully moved and rotated guns between the portraits involving males, because he knew that a slight change in positioning changes meaning (Rosenthal 46). Therefore, Gainsborough did put thought and purpose into his placement of objects and portraits in general. He chose to put Mrs. Graham in her home, with the landscape adjacent. It was as if as a woman, she belongs near the column, snug tightly to the house. She is not frolicking in the trees or out in town. There is so much beyond the home, but she will never truly experience it. Her role now, especially right after marriage, is maintaining the household. Although society appreciated this fact about Mrs. Graham, from a modern lens this seems to perpetuate stagnancy because the woman is confined to the estate. The men are outside with their dogs and guns, standing over their wives, like in Gainsborough's portrait Mr. and Mrs.

Andrews , but Mrs. Graham is constructed within the home. She might feel safer there, but she will never grow or experience the outdoors. Mrs. Graham is a complete representation of how women were viewed and wished to be viewed in the eighteenth century. She was beautiful and elegant, with a proud stance, but she has no depth, or if she does, her status was superior to it. She fills a conventional role and is a wife, beautiful and committed to the home. Yet, this portrait is weighed down in material so she appears as a trophy wife. In a letter from one woman to her friend after viewing Gainsborough's portraits and considering hiring him, she says, "but I should be very sorry to have any one I loved set forth in such a manner" (Rosenthal 46). To this woman, the portraits of Mrs. Graham and ladies alike seemed stiff and overdone. Some women during the time were disgusted by these types of overdone portraits. Mrs. Graham, to a viewer now, is simply a young lady in a beautiful dress. Yet, we do not know what her smile looked like, what she liked to do, or anything about her emotions.

This was the way in which she wished to be viewed and it was the way in which her husband wanted her to be presented � adorned with all types of finery. Women in the eighteenth century like Mrs. Graham were victims of stagnancy and materialism, for they fell prey to the accessories of upper class life and to wifehood. Mrs. Graham is a result of upper-class avariciousness, and the portrait hints at nothing besides exterior beauty. Mrs. Graham represents the epitome of an honorable woman in the eighteenth century, yet honor is no more than excess and immobility. Works Consulted Thomas Gainsborough A Country Life (Art & Design) . Grand Rapids: Prestel, 2002. Print. Cormack, Malcolm. . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991. Print. Hayes, John. Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough . New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (London) by Yale UP, 1971. Print. Hayes, John. . London: Phaidon Limited, 1975. Print. Rosenthal, Michael.

Art of Thomas Gainsborough "a little business for the eye" New Haven, CT: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for the Studies in British Art by Yale UP, 1999. Print. Waterhouse, Ellis.

Question: Who painted 'The Honourable Mrs. Graham'?
Answer: THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH